A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 16

by Robert Kerr

SECTION II.

The Name of the Sound, and Directions for Sailing into it.—Account of the adjacent Country.—Weather.—Climate.—Trees.—Other Vegetable Productions.—Quadrupeds, whose Skins were brought for Sale.—Sea Animals.—Description of a Sea Otter.—Birds.—Water Fowl.—Fish.—Shell-fish, &c.—Reptiles.—Insects.—Stones, &c.—Persons of the Inhabitants.—Their Colour.—Common Dress and Ornaments.—Occasional Dresses, and monstrous Decorations of wooden Masks.—Their general Dispositions.—Songs.—Musical Instruments.—Their Eagerness to possess Iron and other Metals.

On my arrival in this inlet, I had honoured it with the name of King George's Sound; but I afterward found, that it is called Nootka by the natives. The entrance is situated in the east corner of Hope Bay, in the latitude of 49° 33' N., and in the longitude of 233° 12' E. The east coast of that bay, all the way from Breaker's Point to the entrance of the Sound, is covered by a chain of sunken rocks, that seemed to extend some distance from the shore; and, near the Sound, are some islands and rocks above water.

We enter this Sound between two rocky points, that lie E.S.E., and W.N.W. from each other, distant between three and four miles. Within these points the Sound widens considerably, and extends in, to the northward, four leagues at least, exclusive of the several branches toward its bottom, the termination of which we had not an opportunity to ascertain. But, from the circumstance of finding that the water freshened where our boats crossed their entrance, it is probable that they had almost reached its utmost limits. And this probability is increased by the hills that bounded it toward the land, being covered with thick snow, when those toward the sea, or where we lay, had not a speck remaining on them, though, in general, they were much higher. In the middle of the Sound are a number of islands of various sizes. The depth of water in the middle of the Sound, and even close home to some parts of its shore, is from forty-seven to ninety fathoms, and perhaps more. The harbours, and anchoring-places within its circuit, are numerous; but we had no time to survey them. The cove in which our ships lay is on the east side of the Sound, and on the east side of the largest of the islands. It is covered from the sea, but has little else to recommend it, being exposed to the S.E. winds, which we found to blow with great violence; and the devastation they make sometimes was apparent in many places.

The land bordering upon the sea-coast is of a middling height and level; but within the Sound, it rises almost every-where into steep hills, which agree in their general formation, ending in round or blunted tops, with some sharp, though not very prominent, ridges on their sides. Some of these hills may be reckoned high, while others of them are of a very moderate height; but even the highest are entirely covered to their tops with the thickest woods; as well as every flat part toward the sea. There are sometimes spots upon the sides of some of the hills which are bare; but they are few, in comparison of the whole, though they sufficiently point out the general rocky disposition of these hills. Properly speaking, they have no soil upon them, except a kind of compost, produced from rotten mosses and trees, of the depth of two feet or more. Their foundations are, therefore, to be considered as nothing more than stupendous rocks, of a whitish or grey cast, where they have been exposed to the weather; but, when broken, they appeared to be of a blueish grey colour, like that universal sort which were found at Kerguelen's Land. The rocky shores are a continued mass of this; and the little coves, in the Sound, have beaches composed of fragments of it, with a few other pebbles. All these coves are furnished with a great quantity of fallen wood lying in them, which is carried in by the tide; and with rills of fresh water, sufficient for the use of a ship, which seem to be supplied entirely from the rains, and fogs that hover about the tops of the hills. For few springs can be expected in so rocky a country, and the fresh water found farther up the Sound, most probably arose from the melting of the snow; there being no room to suspect, that any large river falls into the Sound, either from strangers coming down it, or from any other circumstance. The water of these rills is perfectly clear, and dissolves soap easily.

The weather, during our stay, corresponded pretty nearly with that which we had experienced off the coast. That is, when the wind was any where between N. and W., the weather was fine and clear; but if to the southward of W., hazy with rain. The climate, as far as we had any experience of it, is infinitely milder than that on the east coast of America, under the same parallel of latitude. The mercury in the thermometer never, even in the night, fell lower than 42°, and very often, in the day, it rose to 60°. No such thing as frost was perceived in any of the low ground; on the contrary, vegetation had made a considerable progress, for I met with grass that was already above a foot long.

The trees which chiefly compose the woods, are the Canadian pine, white cypress, cypressus thyoides, the wild pine, with two or three other sorts of pine less common. The two first make up almost two-thirds of the whole; and, at a distance, might be mistaken for the same tree, as they both run up into pointed spire-like tops, but they are easily distinguished on coming nearer from their colour, the cypress being of a much paler green, or shade, than the other. The trees, in general, grow with great vigour, and are all of a large size.

There is but little variety of other vegetable productions, though, doubtless, several had not yet sprung up at the early season when we visited the place, and many more might be hid from the narrow sphere of our researches. About the rocks, and verge of the woods, we found strawberry-plants, some raspberry, currant, and gooseberry bushes, which were all in a most flourishing state, with a few small black alder-trees. There are, likewise, a species of sow-thistle, goose-grass, some crow's-foot, which has a very fine crimson flower, and two sorts of anthericum, one with a large orange flower, and the other with a blue one. We also found, in these situations, some wild rose-bushes, which were just budding, a great quantity of young leeks, with, triangular leaves, a small sort of grass, and some water-cresses, which grow about the sides of the rills, besides great abundance of andromeda. Within the woods, besides two sorts of underwood shrubs unknown to us, are mosses and ferns. Of the first of which, are seven or eight different sorts, of the last, not above three or four, and the species of both, are mostly such as are common to Europe and America.

As the season of the year was unfavourable to our gaining much knowledge of the vegetable productions of this country, so our own situation while there, put it out of our power to learn much about its animals. For as the want of water made it necessary that we should enter the Sound at first, unforeseen accidents which happened afterward, though they lengthened our stay, were rather unfavourable to our obtaining any knowledge of this kind. The emergency of the case required, that every person should be constantly employed in the necessary business of the ships, which was the capital object, as the season was advancing very fast, and the success of the voyage depended upon their diligence and alacrity in expediting the various tasks assigned to them. Hence it happened, that excursions of every kind, either on the land, or by water, were never attempted. And as we lay in a cove on an island, no other animals were ever seen alive in the woods there, than two or three racoons, martins, and squirrels. Besides these, some of our people who, one day, landed on the continent, near the S.E. side of the entrance of the sound, observed the prints of a bear's feet near the shore. The account, therefore, that we can give of the quadrupeds, is taken from the skins which the natives brought to sell; and these were often so mutilated with respect to the distinguishing parts, such as the paws, tails, and heads, that it was impossible even to guess at the animals to whom they belonged, though others were so perfect, or at least so well known, that they left no room to doubt about them.